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Websleuths News

Join Websleuths Radio for the final discussion of THE KILLING SEASON
with Josh Zemam, Rachel Mills and special guests including Bob Kolker author of Lost Girls

Evening all, I'm thinking the employer referred to is AB's employer, also his landlord.
Some dots I can connect, others need connected. I think SM made all arrangements for rentals, leases and living arrangements.

I think she was in over her head making the following real estate transaction and developed into a huge misunderstanding.

What we need are locals willing to attend hearings to confirm all this. Based on all her charges and bad checks, I think the Bakers were under extreme financial pressure. IMO JMO and all that.

Thanks and good to see you Peliman. I had posted a question about this a couple threads back wondering if it was HIS employer rather than hers. Glad you found all this out...wish we knew more but what you have found helps paint a broader picture with what paint we have. Good show.

Reading the story at this link, has me wondering if maybe EB and AB were actually planning on kidnapping the boss/landlord's daughter for the ransom money? And perhaps something happened with Zahra in the meantime? The whole "fire", passports in the car, etc. could have been part of some elaborate plan since they were so obviously desperate for money. And imo not the sharpest tools in the shed either ....

Or for the "disability" of drug addiction. Our welfare system defines all sorts of generic lowlife behavior as "disability". This past summer I had occasion to become acquainted with a nice young man who's struggling to get through college with zero financial support from his dysfunctional parents -- his father's only income is disability payments for "gambling addiction"!

I take issue with your description of drug addicts as 'generic lowlifes'. Addiction is a physical disease not a character flaw. There is a biological explanation for addiction just like there is for diabetes. There is no cure as of yet.

There is a genetic predisposition for addiction, it runs in families. Right now addiction is viewed the same way mental illness was once viewed. That will change, I'm sure of it. moo mho

Please think long and hard before calling a child a 'run-a-way':
You might be giving a 'perk' to the 'perp'.

Democracy requires the occasional necessity of deferring to the opinions of other people. (Winston Churchill)

Evening all, I'm thinking the employer referred to is AB's employer, also his landlord.
Some dots I can connect, others need connected. I think SM made all arrangements for rentals, leases and living arrangements.

I think she was in over her head making the following real estate transaction and developed into a huge misunderstanding.

The creator of zahrabaker.com said the Board of Elders at his service approved the site Friday night, and the site is already active with visits after just one day.

"We really feel like Zahra doesn't have a voice," said Rev. Brandon Greeson of the Spiritual Counseling Network, which he said is a non-profit organization. "The people who were responsible for taking care of her kind of dropped the ball," said Greeson, "so as a community, it is our responsibility at this point to have someone stand up for her."

Greeson said the group is filing paperwork Monday to officially raise money to help with the investigation, or a funeral, if necessary.

The website also features the phone number for the Hickory Police Dept. on its homepage, so people know where to call in tips.

The Center for Missing and Exploited Children has joined Hickory police in their searches, but won't comment to what extent.

Perhaps you should have led with "I believe..." instead of "for the record."

The grandmother has said, "We want our darling girl back." I believe her. The Australian contingent should not bear the brunt of our frustrations.

I honestly believe Zahra's Grandmother was really pining for her little girl. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to determine that she was probably concerned with her Granddaughter being relocated to another country. But what could she do? Her son made an adult decision and she had to respect that.

Also, keeping in contact by phone is not that easy internationally. There is a significant time lag from Australia to the US. Facebook was probably the best option to 'keep in touch' given the time differences. It's my guess that Karen (the Grandmother) may have communicated with them this way and they could have fed her information that she wanted to hear - IYKWIM.

Duh! I'd left the passport part out, that was the hence "almost" as easy part.

It's been a long day!

But point still stands regardless, with the waiver system unless something has been entered into the immigrations system and flagged at the time of ticket purchase, it's drama free travel.

Additionally, just before the 90 days are up, you wouldn't even have to return to your native country, a short "vacation" to Canada and a re-entry from there, would reset the 90 days. Unless this has been changed within the last 2 years.

I don't think it has, I know an Australian woman in America doing just that as we speak. She moved over to be with her soul mate she met on the internet, moved over about 6 mths ago - I kid you not. She is also crossing the border into Canada although I'm not sure how long you can keep doing this for.

Also the child was deaf, so telephone conversation may have been difficult or need Adam / Elisa to do some interpretation for each side....

She wasn't deaf. She had some hearing loss in the high frequency range only. Mostly makes it difficult to distinguish between unvoiced consonants, but certainly wouldn't have caused any serious communication problems with adults she'd grown up with, familiar with their accents and patterns of speech. If Zahra had had really serious hearing impairment, the hearing resource teacher at her school wouldn't have waited until the end of the school year to "suggest" taking Zahra to the free hearing aid event. She would have been directed to other resources very quickly upon enrolling in the school.

I worked at Dept. of Social Services processing LIEAP forms. If a applicant could not provide a SS# we used either all 9s or 0s. This was a known process. There was NO inter agency communication.

Interesting. This is county energy assistance though. Maybe since that can be a life or death situation (heating and cooling) they are more lenient. I dunno.

There are no claims (federal or county) that come through my office with only 9s or 0s. Even new borns are sometimes given a hmmm pre-SS# (lol can't think of what to call it) that starts 680 or something like that, until they get their formal number.

O/T being hooked on this case and utterly unable to tear myself away while I am in reach of the computer- the little breaks, dinner out, homecoming game last night have all been welcome relief. Just now I took a FB break and was uplifted seeing all the Moms posting all the kids pictures as they got ready to leave for the Homecoming Dance...just a reminder that there is happiness and hope out there, even when it is hard to see while we are her...
(ok proud Mom is done tearing up thinking Wow I only have 1 more year to do this)

I honestly believe Zahra's Grandmother was really pining for her little girl. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to determine that she was probably concerned with her Granddaughter being relocated to another country. But what could she do? Her son made an adult decision and she had to respect that.

Also, keeping in contact by phone is not that easy internationally. There is a significant time lag from Australia to the US. Facebook was probably the best option to 'keep in touch' given the time differences. It's my guess that Karen (the Grandmother) may have communicated with them this way and they could have fed her information that she wanted to hear - IYKWIM.

There is a cousin of Karen (grandma) on the FB page. (in the comment section under the first link) Intials JH saying that AB and Karon had a falling out when he decided to take Zahra to the states and they have not spoken since and that Zahra did NOT want to go.